B-17 in WW II - Memphis Belle

Direct link to video from the Library of Congress

Perhaps one of the best known of the Fortresses was the Memphis Belle. Her crew was the first to complete 25 missions during WW II. Some of you may have seen the movie of the same name based in part on the story of the Memphis Belle. I understand that aspects of the movie were fictionalized, see this wikipedia article For example, the names of the crew were changed in the movie. The pilot of the Memphis Belle in WW II was Robert Morgan.

There is a decent article on Memphis Belle B-17 on wikipedia including a list of the 25 missions flown by the Morgan crew. The Museum of the US Air Force has an exhibit (opened in 2018) devoted to the Memphis Belle, go here for more information about the exhibit on the Memphis Belle with more links. 

Here is a 2018 video from the EAA of the unveiling of the Memphis Belle exhibit.

Direct link to video on YouTube

I am doing some rearranging of this first group of articles on the B-17, I'll be back in a couple of days with my next article and a revised list of these first set of articles focusing on the WW II service of the B-17.

edited on December 29, 2021: many of the links in my original 2011 article and later changes are invalid. The videos and links that I provide here were valid at the time I updated this article.